Since 2015, a French-Quebec partnership, supported by the CPCFQ (Commission permanente de coopération franco-québécoise), has enabled researchers at IRSTEA Grenoble and Laval University to work together to improve soil bioengineering techniques. The objective of this partnership is, in particular, to promote the plant diversity of riverbanks while ensuring the functions of protection against erosion. Cross-projects have been created from this partnership. Thus, a co-supervised thesis has emerged and experiments on willow cuttings under hydromorphic conditions are being developed in both countries.
Numerous meetings have allowed the exchange of knowledge and the emergence of a combined study on this theme. A concrete example of this partnership is the Saint-Albert demonstration project in Quebec, funded by the Ministry of Transport, Sustainable Mobility and Transport Electrification (MTMDET): both groups provided technical and scientific support in the design of this project and a technical workshop will be held in 2018 to mark its creation.
Two symposia also helped disseminate this joint expertise to managers and researchers in both countries: one in France (30th June and 1st July 2016) and the other in Quebec (5th October 2016). In addition, the 13th annual plant ecology symposium EcoVeg was held in Quebec in 2017, attended by numerous researchers from both institutes.
